Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike

Book Promo

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM SAM AND SHARI ROBB (EDITORS): Tales From the Wood: Stories in the Key of Tull, Volume 2

Jethro Tull has an amazing discography. Spanning everything from folk music to heavy metal over 50 years, their music has inspired generations of artists of all types – including authors. This anthology of speculative fiction pays tribute to that inspiration. Just as the music of Jethro Tull spans genres, so do these stories.

Come join us around the fire for stories of all manner of witches, wizards, dragons, and fae beings both light and dark as these bards bring you their Tales from the Wood.

FROM MOE LANE: Tales From The Fermi Resolution: Vol. 2: Lights in the Darkness

“Moe has a bunch of great stories in this collection, including the best response to that Le Guin story I’ve ever seen.”
– Karl K. Gallagher, author of Torchship Trilogy and the Fall of the Censor series.

Return to the world of the Fermi Resolution! Ten stories of a post-apocalyptic North America, gone mad with magic. Adventure abounds, from the treachery-haunted ruins of Michigan to the magic-kissed streets of Cin City! Action and derring-do, on land and sea – well, all right, the ‘sea’ part is actually a bay. But there are sea monsters fighting elvish privateers! Bears with hats! Orcs attending operas! Several flavors of mad cultists! Nine hundred years of patient heroism, all to protect those precious lights in the darkness.

This book includes the first three chapters of the upcoming Tom Vargas novel BANSHEE BEACH.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Light Up the Night

Dane Crockford is tired. Tired of the green energy crapping out and leaving his wife Rose gasping for breath when their air conditioning dies, tired of trying to hide his use of his own solar panels from the nationalized electrical company, and tired of worrying about his daughter and son-in-law, trapped in an abusive indenture program to pay off their student loans. He’s not the only one, either. Everyone in his home town is in a similar situation, many of them with their children doing dangerous jobs without pay to offset crippling student debt. So when his grandson Toby accidentally discovers an energy generation method that isn’t wholly owned by the federal government, he jumps on the possibility of building something that works, in spite of and around the federal monopoly.

But what the monopoly doesn’t realize is that their grip on Dane, and on his home town, is far less secure than they think. When they disconnect his house from the power grid, they have nothing to hold over him, to force him to work for small rebates on his monthly bill. The utility has unleashed the power of a cranky old man with a rare skill, and they’ve got no idea that they’ve tossed the pebble that starts an avalanche.

FROM JAMES TOTTEN: Annie’s Got A Gun: A Pole Dance Aviation Short Story

Ukraine is becoming a very dangerous place. Suicide drones attack civilians and infrastructure with impunity after all of the $100k surface to air missiles are gone and the “flack tracks” run out of bullets. In a horror show of a war, it’s time for some good old American ingineuity. Pole Dance Aviation, a Private Military Company, is established by its charismatic owner Jason Kane to assist with counter drone operations. Flying highly modified Cold War airframes, PDA gets down to the nitty gritty of shooting suicide drones out of the sky far cheaper than launching missiles that cost thousands of dollars a shot to kill hundred dollar drones. What happens if a PDA aircraft gets shot down? Send in the downed aircraft crew recovery platoon, The Shitheads, and they will fast rope into hell to get the pilots out. No fight is too tough and no enemy to too bad to keep the Shitheads from doing the deed and getting the pilots back. The Shitheads are supported by a cast of character’s, planes with call signs like Spy and Fat Amy, pilots named Axel and GO Juice, and leaders named Turtle and Mikey (that pre-workout fueled fight junkie will eat ANYTHING). Come along for the nonstop thrill ride set in the near future with headlines ripped out of tomorrow’s news feed. Oh, did I mention, Annie… yeah, she is there too, and she got a gun!! Mount up for grueling action as the Shitheads take on all comers in this high tech fight to the death on tommorow’s battlefield in Eastern Ukraine.

FROM I. M. LERNER AND CATHERINE OSORNIO: The Hidden Entrance (Under the Staircase – An Economic Adventure Series for Kids Book 2)

On a hunch, he pressed down on the ledge, first on Hubris and then on Nemesis.
Crrrr….
The click-clackety sound of moving gears creaked loudly on the other side of the wall.
Slowly the bookshelf slid aside, revealing a dark hallway.

After spending the summer discovering the Under the Staircase Society, Nate, Maya, and Maggie are finally back at school. But while Nate would be happy puttering in his workshop and tinkering with his 3D printer, he can’t stand by as their beloved Apprenticeship Program comes under attack. The discovery of The Road to Serfdom sparks a chain of events they could never have expected. From Cipher Wheels to Cicero, secret desks to hidden passages, the kids must solve the mystery…before it’s too late!

Under the Staircase® Books A mystery and adventure series that teaches treasured values: personal responsibility, individual liberty, and economic freedom.

Psst! Parents & Teachers: The second book in the series introduces a variety of Friedrich Hayek’s economic concepts—individualism and collectivism, the knowledge problem, the fatal conceit, and other topics—using examples from kids’ day-to-day lives in school, with friends, and in familiar situations.

FROM MARY CATELLI: Journeys And Wizardry

Drunken mermaids — a clan cursed to become crows — a magic book that even the Nameless Necromancer fears — and more in this reprint collection of thirteen stories and a poem.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Ice Storm

Everywhere Evangeline looks, a thin coating of ice makes objects gleam in the sunlight. However, the beauty proves deceptive, for it hides a deadly secret, one only she can recognize.

In her youth, Evangeline had aspired ot master the powerful magics of her world. Those dreams died the day her Gift awakened uncontrolled and plunged her into a vision of a full fleet battle. The Admiral’s Gift will not be denied, and for Evangeline there was no choice but to trade her mage’s robes for Navy blue.

Now she is faced with an enemy she cannot fight save by magic. Except those who bear the Admiral’s gift are forever barred from working magic.

FROM KAREN MYERS: The Visitor, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That

A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That

THE VISITOR – Felockati is anchored to his permanent location underwater and misses the days of roaming his ocean world freely.

But something new drops out of the sky and widens his horizons — all the way to the stars.

YOUR EVERY WISH – Stealing the alien ambassador’s dagger is a sure thing for Pete — just what he needs to pay off his debts.

Until he starts talking to it. There has to be a way to get something for himself out of the deal. Has to be.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: SWEET